{"id":244558,"date":"2019-09-18T21:35:05","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T11:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=244558"},"modified":"2020-07-17T16:37:16","modified_gmt":"2020-07-17T06:37:16","slug":"third-try-for-streetscape-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/09\/18\/third-try-for-streetscape-grant\/","title":{"rendered":"Third Try For Streetscape Grant"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Local businessman Allen Christensen with Kingaroy Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Rob Fitz-Herbert and South Burnett mayor Keith Campbell at Tuesday’s KCCI meet’n’greet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

September 18, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

South Burnett Regional Council will lodge its third application to the Building Better Regions Fund (BBRF) in a bid to get the Federal Government to contribute to Kingaroy\u2019s $8 million streetscape project.<\/p>\n

Mayor Keith Campbell told the Kingaroy Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Meet’n’Greet on Tuesday night that Council will resubmit an amended bid in October.<\/p>\n

Two previous BBRF bids have failed but the Mayor said Council had recently taken advice on how to submit an application that would align more strongly with the fund’s criteria.<\/p>\n

He hoped this would produce a better outcome the third time around.<\/p>\n

The Mayor said Council had now set aside $4 million for the project however, the opportunity to double that funding with a matching contribution from the Federal Government was something it could not pass up.<\/p>\n

Mayor Campbell said he wanted to assure the KCCI that while progress on the CBD upgrade had been slow to date, it had not been shelved.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The project will upgrade ageing underground infrastructure in Kingaroy’s CBD, as well as above-ground parking, traffic flows and street architecture in an area roughly bounded by Kingaroy, Haly, Youngman and Alford streets.<\/p>\n

The push to streamline and modernise the town’s CBD was first announced in June 2017.<\/p>\n

Later that year, Council engaged consultants to help develop concepts for the project, and those initial plans were presented to Kingaroy residents and businesses in March 2018.<\/p>\n

The Council then submitted a funding proposal to the BBRF seeking a 50 per cent co-contribution.<\/p>\n

But matters ground to a halt in July 2018 when Council’s funding submission was declined.<\/p>\n

Two months later, Council announced it would press on by setting aside $2 million a year from its 2018-19 and 2019-20 Budgets to build a $4 million “war chest” for the upgrade while it further refined its plans.<\/p>\n

It also announced it would defer starting any work on the upgrade until it had secured extra funding.<\/p>\n

This was because BBRF only funded “shovel ready” projects, which would make any work Council carried out in advance of receiving funding ineligible.<\/p>\n

Council resubmitted its proposal to BBRF late last year and found out in March its second submission had also been rejected.<\/p>\n

Mayor Campbell said at the time he was disappointed, but remained committed to securing additional funding whether that came from BBRF or other sources.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In August this year, the Council lodged a funding application with the State Government’s Building Our Regions (BOR) program to co-fund a $680,000 upgrade to Kingaroy\u2019s Alford Street car park, along with a new $800,000 Liquid Waste Disposal facility that will be built near the Stuart River Rural Fire Brigade’s shed.<\/p>\n

The outcome of that funding submission has not yet been announced, but if it is successful the Alford Street car park will be removed from the Kingaroy upgrade project.<\/p>\n

At Tuesday night’s meeting, KCCI president Rob Fitz-Herbert thanked the Mayor for the update and said he shared the hope Council could be “third time lucky” on its Federal funding submission.<\/p>\n

“Kingaroy looks tired and the CBD desperately needs upgrading,” Mr Fitz-Herbert said.<\/p>\n

“So the quicker this can happen, the better.”<\/p>\n

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